Gun barrel



vNov. 7, 1944. w. M. FAY

GUN BARREL Filed June 15. 1941 Patented Nov. 7, 1944 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1 Claim.

(Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as amended April 30, 1928; 370 0. G. 757) The invention described herein may be mandfactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes, without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

My invention relates to means for cooling a 5 rifle barrel or a machine gun barrel and also to an expedient whereby a rifle or machine gun is lightened in Weight Without materially affecting the strength of the rifle or machine gun.

An object of my invention is to provide a rifle barrel or a machine gun barrel with a plurality of indentations so that the radiating surface of the barrel is increased.

Another object of my invention is to provide a rifle barrel or machine gun barrel with a plurall5 ity of indentations so that a light barrel having a large radiating surface results.

My invention is disclosed in the accompanying drawing and it is to be understood that my invention is not limited to the precise embodiment disclosed but is broad enough to include a range of equivalents as seen from the prior art.

Referring to the accompanying sheet of drawings, Fig. 1 is a side view of a gun barrel broken to show the degree of taper of the barrel and discloses a series of indentations in the barrel of a firearm.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view through the center of the barrel.

Fig. 3 is a View taken on the line s 3 in Fig. 1.

The barrel [0 of a firearm is provided with a series of cup-shaped indentations [2 extending along a line parallel to the axis of the barrel and a series of similarly shaped indentations l3 parallel to the axis of the barrel displaced from the first series of indentations a distance approximately equal to the diameter of the indentations. The two series of indentations are also displaced in a direction extending along the barrel as indicated in Figs. 1 and 3. Adjacent indentations on the barrel bear the same relationship to one another as the series of indentations I2 bear to the series of indentations. [3. It is readily seen from the drawing and description that the indentations are arranged in a. checkerboard pattern in this preferred embodimnet of the invention and it is realized that other indentation patterns might be made of avail in carrying out the broader aspects of my invention.

In this particular embodiment of my invention the barrel of a conventional firearm is provided with a large number of radial holes of sufilcient depth, diameter and shape to obtain approximately greater radiating surface and 25% less weight. These holes are located in a geometrical pattern which allows the largest number of holes with the least loss of barrel strength. The bottom of the holes is a sufiicient distance from the chamber and bore of the barrel to obtain suificient strength and maximum heat radiating surface of the barrel.

A conventional gun barrel is disclosed in the drawing and the size of the holes in the barrel is drawn in proportion to the inside and outside diameters of the barrel. The actual length of the barrel is approximately 18 times its maximum outside diameter. It is noted that the holes shown in the drawing extend slightly more than one-half the wall thickness of the barrel and yet the strength of the barrel is not seriously impaired.

I claim:

An integral gun barrel unit, the envelope of its extreme outer, longitudinal profile being substantially continuous, said barrel unit having numerous radially extending cup-shaped indentations of substantial depth andhaving inwardly curved bottoms distributed substantially throughout the entire body of the said barrel unit, the indentations terminating within the integral body of the barrel.

WALTER M. FAY. 

